GOP Budget Plan Complicated by Tax Reform Dilemma

As Republicans set to work on a budget plan in the coming weeks, they are facing a challenge in whether to incorporate Rep. David Camp's tax reform proposal in an election year.

According to Politico, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan had been proposing a tax overhaul for the last three years, but the plan put forward by Camp, the House Ways and Means chairman, may be too radical for many GOP members to accept.

"Mr. Ryan is going to have a very difficult time," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer told Politico.

GOP Rep. John Campbell, a budget committee member, is among those who do not see the benefits of incorporating Camp's plan into the fiscal proposals.

"Probably like most people, there [are] things I like, things that I don't like," Campbell told Politico. "We may have always said we want pro-growth, revenue-neutral tax reform, and that's a blueprint for it, but it's obviously not the only one."

Camp's plan announced last month would cut the top corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent, while collapsing the seven individual tax brackets to just two, at rates of 10 percent and 25 percent.

It received a muted response from the Republican leadership, reluctant to risk political capital by giving it a public endorsement.

The annual congressional budget is due next month. Ryan agreed to a budget deal with Democrats in December to set out the framework but details will be hashed out in the coming weeks.

"The Camp plan is too green," GOP Rep. Bill Flores, a member of the budget committee, told Politico, adding it's a "starting point for a discussion but it's not what it's going to look like, and we shouldn't get too deep into what it's going to look like."

Ryan has declined to comment on the plans, but Camp told Politico, "I'm going to work with him on what goes in his budget, and we're just beginning those discussions, so it's a work in progress."